


The Princess Sleeps with Electronic Noise

by enmity



Category: Persona 2, Persona Series
Genre: Gen, Mt. Iwato, innocent sin spoilers lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-16 18:55:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14171358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enmity/pseuds/enmity
Summary: She was supposed to have understood better than anyone else the worthlessness of apologies.





	The Princess Sleeps with Electronic Noise

**Author's Note:**

> happy april fool's day, sorry i'm like this
> 
> was unsure abt this but all that stuff bout maya never acknowledging her shadow got to me

“What’s wrong? Is there something on my face?” She smiled, watching him flinch, eyes widening, as she wiped an imaginary smudge of dirt off the space between her cheek and jaw. “Little boy.”

No one else saw. She took in the stagnant air of the office, the slight twitch of Tatsuya’s closed mouth, the nervous line of his shoulders as he pulled them taut, his back turning to her, and skulked away. The suspicion he’d meant for her to prove wrong left unsaid but evident in his gaze, regardless. She could tell. Nevertheless, she let him go, scurrying to talk to Lisa, poor little Lisa, looking at him with watery eyes ready to tip.

She had been always able to tell. She was right: in many ways he was still the same little boy who’d insisted so vehemently against keeping her inside the shrine. The same jittery look in his eyes, the same habit of drawing further into himself at the first feeling of discomfort. The same pure-hearted, compassionate innocence that made her almost feel bad for the eventual moment when she would shatter it. Would that be a sight, she thought, and had to keep herself from laughter.

“Please… we have to go to Alaya Shrine,” Lisa was saying. “Then… we’ll all remember…”

If Tatsuya had any idea of the cause of the girl’s distress, he didn’t let it on. It must be nice to be so oblivious, she thought, but it was with more fondness than she would have bothered to spare for the rest of their sorry lot.

That boy had been in the fire with her, after all. So selfless he’d been, right through the end. It was too bad that he would have to die along with the others, but at the end of the day, he had worn that mask too. It was only fair.

—

Even if Tatsuya didn’t remember – not yet, they’d all remember soon enough – she did, and memories were worth something, weren’t they? They counted. They were proof that she’d been hurt, that she’d been scared, that she’d suffered something she would have to live with for the rest of her life. It meant something. The scar on his back and the burns marring her torso; those, too, were indelible proof of their shared past that no amount of self-deception could erase. But it didn’t compare to the roaring flames that haunted her dreams, searing and painful as the smoke choked her up, as she kept pounding on the door that refused to open –

It had hurt so much. And did that, all that pain, mean anything to _them_? Was her suffering so worthless in their eyes that they’d expect her to forgive them just like that?

She didn’t care enough to know the answer. They’d always been such sad, selfish kids.

—

They were at the pharmacist. The mountain would surely be overrun with demons by now, and strong ones, Tatsuya had said, insisting they stop by the store, but their repertoire of medicine was in no real need of further bolstering and she had a suspicion the detour was his attempt at distracting himself from the real problem at hand.

Namely.

While the others were scattered about at opposite sides of the aisles, he walked up to her, and pretended for a long moment to be distracted with inspecting the back label of a bottle of ointment before speaking up at last. Some distance away she caught Yukki turning her head at them, but the woman looked away just as fast.

“Are you really okay? Maya…” Tatsuya said, voice trailing away. He didn’t look at her. “If you’re not feeling well, we can rest for a little while more. Climbing a mountain isn’t easy work. You might get injured on the way.”

“Oh no, Tatsuya-kun, I’m perfectly fine! You worry so much over the strangest things, don’t you? And we always have healing magic,” she added, and laughed to make a point. “If you’re that concerned, wouldn’t it be best that we get going soon? Look,” she gestured towards Lisa, standing some aisles away with trembling shoulders almost brushing with Eikichi’s beside her, “it looks like those two are just positively dying to go to that mountain.”

“If you say so.” He shook his head. He didn’t seem convinced. For a moment she could see his hand twitch, as though an abortive movement, and so she grinned, placing a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.

“Come on. Don’t look so gloomy.” She giggled. “I feel like something amazing’s waiting for us up there. Trust me on this!” Her fingertips curled around the dark of his uniform jacket. He still looked unsure.

“Yeah,” Tatsuya replied, after a moment’s hesitation. Did he think he could hide the doubt in his eyes from her? How cute. “Let’s…get going then.”

—

A bullet had shot through her. She didn’t notice the blood until a half-second later, seeping through fabric and torn flesh, staining the ground she crumpled onto, her gun kicked away. Her legs were numb with pain, and her hand smeared with red warmth as she struggled to lift herself up from the ground. She scowled.

Her plans, her hatred, all for naught.

“You were so eager to die,” she spat, venomous, towards her mirror. She must know: _if you hadn’t wanted them to pay for making you suffer, then I wouldn’t exist at all. You’re every bit as horrible as I am. How do you reconcile yourself with that?_ She was supposed to have understood better than anyone else the worthlessness of apologies. The blood didn’t stop; she coughed. The words didn’t come out. “You were supposed to… so… why…”

It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair at all.

Gazing down on her, her eyes set and clear, Maya’s jaw tightened. Her grip on the handle twitched, but Maya steadied, catching herself in the half-moment it took before she pulled the trigger.

_How do you reconcile yourself with that?_

She never got an answer.

**Author's Note:**

> my [twitter](https://twitter.com/stratostellas) if ur into tha


End file.
